This month, I have been a lot more
focused on my prayer life. I cannot recall a time in my life where
I’ve literally been in constant prayer (sad, but true). This month
was our ATL (Ask the Lord) month, and that’s exactly what this whole
month has been about-asking the Lord. Every day my team and I pray
and ask the Lord what He wants from us for the day.
During this month, I’ve decided to try
something different with my prayer life. After reading founder of
AIM, Seth Barnes’ blog: Prayer times as wineskins, I
began to take a closer look at my own prayer life. Here is an exert
from Seth’s blog:
“Jesus talks about structure
using the metaphor of a wineskin – an inanimate container to hold
something of great spiritual value. Everything organic and growing in
life needs a wineskin. Paintings need canvas and a frame. Prayer
needs a time and place if it is to be as intimate as God wants it.
Jesus went to a place of prayer often and he spent long stretches in
prayer. The trouble comes when we begin to elevate the structure of a
wineskin to a place where it gets in the way of the thing it
contains.”
I loved that. His blog goes more in
depth about prayer, and he ultimately issues a one hour prayer
challenge-a prayer experiment, if you will. After reading Seth’s
blog, I decided to take the one hour prayer challenge to see what
would result in my life. I have now completed the challenge. (Even
though this challenge was set for a week, I’m praying to incorporate
it into my life from here on out.) Well, I can tell you firsthand,
it’s been absolutely incredible. I’ve been able to truly devote much
needed time in prayer for certain people and places. And these are
such sweet times. During one prayer session, I caught myself smiling.
Another time, I felt inspired to write a poem, so I did. It’s great
the ways God is speaking to me. It’s amazing too, how I easily
thought things were impossible, until I started praying for them.
I know life can get hectic and at
times, feel like it’s spinning out of control, but it’s in those
times, that we need to stop and pray. And not only should we pray in
those times, but in the good times too. God wants to lavish His
blessings on you (remember the warehouse?). He just wants to hear
from you. You might be surprised how the blessings seem to pile up
when you are in a state of thankfulness to God. So what if all we
did was pray? What if we all spent time in prayer, talking to our
Heavenly Father, just letting Him know how our day was or something
exciting we experienced that day? Or what if we spent time
interceding for others on their behalf, crying out for a revolution?
I urge you to consider the one hour prayer challenge for one week.
See how God will use that time. Carve out that time in your week. You
won’t be sorry. Fight through the distractions and that instant
thought of “I don’t have time.” You do. It might mean
getting up earlier, or saying no to hanging out with friends, or
other commitments, but you’ll find the time somehow. Just go into a
quiet room–try (yes, it’s difficult) to remove all distractions. I
find it helps to journal out my prayers. Just a suggestion, but you
could try it too.
Seth has been keeping a running blog of
how people’s prayer times did BIG things, in their lives and those
they prayed for, so in similar form…I would love for you to leave
me a comment and let me know how God answered your prayers or spoke
to you in a new way after you tried the one hour prayer experiment!
So go, pray in boldness! I’m excited to hear your stories. Be
blessed!
